“CBS Mornings” hosts confronted Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Tuesday on his own party’s lack of trust and faith in his leadership.
Schumer enraged many of his fellow Democrats by supporting the GOP government funding bill to avoid a shutdown, prompting many to question his future leadership in the party. CBS News hosts Gayle King and Tony Dokoupil pressed the Senate leader on his party’s own opposition and on whether he should step aside.
“Let me explain why a shutdown is terrible,” Schumer said. “People ought to know that. The executive branch, in this case Musk, DOGE … who have no concern for working people would have the sole power to determine what opens and what closes. They determine what is essential. You can’t go to court. So on day two, get rid of SNAP and food for hungry kids, it’s not essential. Day 4, get rid of mass transit aid, let New York City do it. Not essential. Cut back on Medicaid and healthcare. Within two weeks, everyone would have been howling. Furthermore, it’s even worse. It has no offramp. Guess who determines when we leave the shutdown? The Republicans.”
Dokoupil then asked about the Democrats’ lack of action to stand against the Trump administration’s agenda.
“Senator, the leader in question, that is actually what people are debating right now. There are people in your party that don’t want you to be a leader in the party anymore and it’s a question of what is this moment and what does it require?” Dokoupil said, before branching off into a question about the Trump administration’s objections to a federal judge’s deportation ruling.
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King then further confronted Schumer on his party’s lack of trust in his leadership, leading the senator to say that his party has a plan to move forward while the Republicans defend “rich old oligarchs.”
“But Tony touched on it, senator … there are people in your own party who are saying ‘look, it’s time for you to go.’ They no longer trust your leadership, they want somebody else in there,” King said. “What do you say about that? In your own party saying ‘you’ve got to go.’”
“Here’s what I’ll say. I’m the best leader for the senate. When you don’t have a president there’s not one leader of the party, there are lots of them. We have a lot of good people. But, I am the best at winning senate seats. I’ve done it in 2005, just in 2020, no one thought we’d take back the Senate. Under my leadership, we took it. We’re moving forward, [House Minority Leader] Hakeem [Jeffries] and I are moving forward. Hakeem and I have a plan. Let me say this, there’s a real contrast between the parties. The Republican Party is the party of rich old oligarchs who want to really screw every average American so they can get tax cuts for the rich. And we are fighting that everyday.”
Schumer’s defense of the Democrats led King to remind him that the American people currently lack “faith” in the party.
“Senator, people don’t have faith in the Democrats,” King said.
The Democrat Party’s favorability rating dropped to a record low of 29% in a CNN/SSRS poll released Sunday. Meanwhile, Trump’s approval rating stands at his best-ever percentage as president, 47%, according to an NBC News poll from Sunday.
Schumer was joined by nine other Senate Democrats by voting “yes” on the GOP funding bill in a Friday floor vote. He postponed his book tour Monday as it was expected to be met with hostile protests from left-wing grassroots organizations over his support for the funding bill.
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